I stare at the puddle of blood below me. You ever wonder why blood is so goddam salty? Like why the fuck does it taste like that. It’s some disgusting shit.

I feel the fists pummeling into the sides of my face. I try to hit back. Big mistake. More fists wail down on me. Instead of trying to fight back soon I give up. I let the bullies go ahead and beat me. Go ahead. Get your fill. No point fighting now. No point doing anything else but crawling up in a ball and hoping that they’d get tired or somehow start feeling bad for beating up the little gay kid.

Neither really happens.

I know what you’re thinking? Gay bash? That shit doesn’t happen anymore. That’s a lie. In Spanish Harlem…that shit happened all the time.

The only thing that stops the gay bash is when my best friend Raul shows up. Raul is a big guy. He’s on the football team. We were raised together in the same group home. I’m sure the only reason he’s helping me is because he feels bad. He feels like he has to. I don’t have anyone. I never really did.

He runs the guys off in a matter of minutes and helps me up.

“Why the fuck you let those guys do that to you Santos?”

Raul helps me get up. He’s Spanish, a little darker than I am. I can feel my face knotting up almost immediately. Raul seems to notice because he doesn’t look at my face. He’s handsome. He’s more handsome than I am that’s for sure. Where I am just 5’8”, Raul is 6’2”. People tell me that I’m not ugly but that I need to ‘fix my face’. Dead ass. That’s what they say. Santos, fix your face. Raul says I always look worried. He says it makes me look like a Mexican whose out in the field all day. Raul’s a little racist to Mexicans. He’s Colombian. They have this race war or some shit going on. I like to say that I’m Panamanian because it’s sounds nice but truth is I don’t know what the fuck I am. I’m just a latino gay boy who gets beat up all the fucking time.

My parents abandoned me when I was a kid. See. That’s how my world works. People get up and they fucking abandon me. That’s just how it is.
“Yeah, papi, I just put an X on my forehead.”

“You might as well have.”

Raul helps me get on my feet and gives me an eyebrow. It’s been 1 month since I came out of the closet. Maricón—that’s what Raul calls it. It’s spanish for faggot. Raul likes to shove it in my face that his parents taught him Spanish before they died. They died in what was known as the Blood Holocaust. It was a plague that swept over the nation killing a ton of people. It took years for the world to really rebuild itself. No one knew where the plague came from or how it ended but it just…ended and things went back to normal. Only thing families were separated from one another, chaos took over the streets and there was the highest death toll in history from one outbreak. At least Raul knew that his parents died though. For all I knew my parents just didn’t want to their rations on a kid.

“I know what your thinking. I shouldn’t have done it. I shouldn’t have written that article in the school newspaper letting everyone know I’m gay.”

Raul looks at me with that sad look. He always looks at me like that. He is a popular guy and he has a lot of other friends. He never looks at his other friends like he looks at me. He looks at me as a charity case. Sometimes I just feel like I’m someone getting in his way. Raul would rather be out with the football guys bullshitting then having to walk around the school just to find out if his childhood friend is getting gay bashed by a bunch of bullies again.

“Victor Ruiz is a closet fag,” Raul says, “He just probably has a crush on you. Everyone knows it.”

“You’re not answering my question Raul.”

“Should you have written the article? No. No…because he’s never going to see the article, Santos. No matter how much you want to get his attention…he’s never going to care. Milan’s never coming back…ever…”

Raul tells me this once a day. Milan is never coming back. Ever. Never.

Forever is such a long time.

My foster parents house smells like booze and sex. My foster father makes my foster mother prostitute on the street corner. She brings her Johns home often and seems to give no shits about anything else. Her name is Meryl. It was a bullshit name for a bullshit lady. My mother’s name was Claudette. I always imagined my mother to be some important lady. Claudette Rios. My dad was Tony Rios. I imagined him to be a pharmacist.

Meanwhile in reality—my foster mother Meryl was high on drugs. Even now she is laying down on the couch, legs spread wide open smelling like old cheese and dried up lube.

“Tory home?” I ask her as I walk in the apartment.

“Fuck you,” Meryl responds.

That’s code that she wanted to be left alone and probably code that Tory wasn’t home. I was thankful Tory wasn’t home. My foster father was a weirdo to say the least. Ever since I left the group home he’d just watch me. He removed the door on the bathroom. Many times I’d come out of the shower to see him just standing there, hands down his pants playing with his dick and looking on. It never crosse the line but I wasn’t an idiot. It was only a matter of time before he got tired of Meryl. It was only a matter of time before he turned his attraction to me.

I go in the room. My room has Milan and Santos carved on the wood boards. He did it before he left me. Everyone leaves me. It’s been 2 years since he’s been gone and it’s ok. It’s completely ok.

“Well. I’m sure there’s no food here Meryl…again. I haven’t eaten for 2 days. Just in case you cared…”

“Fuck you.”

“So I’m going back out to roam the streets.”

“Fuck off…faggot.”

“And I’ll probably kill myself.”

“WHY ARE YOU STILL TALKING!”

She winces in pain. I can tell she is upset that I turned off the light. When she was high like that she hated any sort of light. I turn off the light doing her a favor. She wasn’t always a bitch. I’d rather have been around her a million times more than her creepy ass husband but she did do drugs a lot. Sometimes I figured drugs is just a sickness. People couldn’t help how they acted when they were on it. That’s what I said to myself at least. It kept me feeling less sorry for myself.

Not today though.
Today would be the day. 2 years ago the love of my life Milan Matthews left me. He probably died. His parents died in the Blood Holocaust as well. I always figured he just killed himself. So today was the best day.

Today was the day that I decided to die.
“Goodbye world.”

I’m at the Ward’s Island bridge with El Barrio behind my back. Looking back at East Harlem I never felt so ashamed. Giving up isn’t the hardest thing. I’m not even sad. I just feel an emptiness. I just feel like now is the time. I’ve lived for 16 years without ever finding an ounce of happiness outside of Milan. And when he left things went right back to the same.

So I’m standing at the edge of the bridge. I walk closer.

“Goodbye world.”

“Goodbye world…”

I walk closer. I turn at that moment and I see a figure standing at the end of the street. He’s dressed in black. Damn. I didn’t want anyone to see me. Oh well. He’s too far to stop me. I jump at that moment. I jump off the bridge and I feel a hand grab at me.

The hand holds me. It keeps me dangling from over the bridge.

“You fucking crazy?” he asks.

The voice. There is something so familiar about the voice. I look up at the person holding me from the bridge. It’s the figure in black. How the fuck did the person move so fast? How did the person run almost a block in a matter of seconds? It was…impossible.

“Let me go.”

“I’m not going to do that…Santos.”

That’s when I look up and my heart stops. The person who saved me is none other than him. The love of my life.

Milan.

========================================================================
Milan takes me to Raul’s place. Raul was adopted by a family. It’s not a rich family. He has a ton of other adopted brothers and sisters. They are struggling, but it’s nothing compared to my foster parents. His new parents are nice and welcoming. His new brothers and sisters are kind and sweet. The kids in the house crowd around Milan and I when we get into Raul’s place. Raul takes us to the bedroom and shuts the door.

Milan looks the same. He is a black boy with curly hair. His skin is the color of Hershey and his eyes are always squinting like he just saw a flash of bright light. He is still very thin, skinny guy but tall and lanky. It works for him. Looking at him now he’s dressed in a black sweater. I wonder what he was doing out in the middle of the night. It had taken me hours until I got the courage to go to the bridge. Was he following me the entire time?

“You tried to do what?” Raul asks.

The concern is there. Milan hasn’t talked to me since the bridge. A part of me wonders if he brought me over to Raul’s house so Raul can chew me out. Milan must have a good memory knowing where Raul lived. After Milan had been for two years I didn’t expect it.

I don’t answer.

Milan answers instead, “He tried to kill himself.”

And I didn’t. But how? How the fuck was Milan able to save me? I want to ask that question and more but right now my mind just goes blank. It is taking a while for me to register the fact that I’m still fucking alive.

Raul looks over at Milan, “You stopped him?”

“Just in time.”

Raul looks over a me, “What the fuck were you thinking?”

I don’t respond. What’s the point of responding in a situation like this? Raul was my best friend. If anyone knew what I’d been through in my life he knew. He knew exactly what I had been through.

Milan looks over at me, “Are you…ok, Santos?”

“You left him for 2 years. Thanks for saving him but I think you’ve done enough,” Raul barks at that moment.

Raul is my guard dog. He always has been. The fact that he’s attacking Milan right now seems to be something I’d always knew would happen if saw Milan again. Every time I brought up Milan it was like a curse to him. Milan had loved me. Milan had left me. Now Milan was mysteriously back again the moment that I needed him the most.

Milan looks over at me, “If I leave…will you try to hurt yourself again?”

I don’t answer.

My mouth is dry. Shock has taken over from seeing Milan again. Why answer? Why say anything at all? No. I just stay quiet. I just look at him for long periods of time. I feel like if I blink he’ll disappear again.

“He’ll be fine,” Raul states, “I got him. I always got him.”

“No I won’t,” I respond.

My voice I stern and strong. I won’t be ok if Milan leaves. I never want him to leave again. I look at him. I remember all the times we used to sit together. I remember all the lessons that we used to talk to each other about. The world was a better place then when he was in my life. The world was kinder back then.

Milan gets up. My eyes are desperately following him as he walks to the door. He goes to the door and opens it. Then his thin, slim fingers unfold. They reach out back towards me. They stretch out and offer me a hand.

“I know some place we can go…” he offers.

Raul looks over at him, “Fuck no.” Then desperately he looks over at me, “Santos. Don’t fall for this shit again. Don’t go into his fantasy again. You don’t want to go into depression after he leaves. You’ve been doing good without this motherfucker.”

“With all due respect Raul, no the fuck he hasn’t,” Milan replies sharply, “He just tried to kill himself today.”

“Where are you taking him?”

“I want to show him another place. A different place.”

“You don’t get to just show up after two years and take him anywhere,” Raul responds, “You don’t get to. You don’t get to just jump in and out of someone’s life. Santos. SANTOS!”

The night is cold. It’s mid October. The fall leaves scatter among the streets of East Harlem. We are heading deeper into Harlem. I want to pay close attention to where we are going but I don’t. I’m looking at Milan. There is something…different about him. I can’t put my hand on it. Milan’s face used to get flushed all the time. His dark brown would turn hues of burgundy especially when he was around me. That didn’t happen now. His skin stays the same color. His eyes seem different as well. His eyes were once a dark brown but now they are a lighter brown. Contacts maybe? I’m not sure.
“Where are we going?” I ask Milan.
“A place.”

He’s being creepy as fuck. I have to admit it. Then again I just tried to fucking kill myself. It’s not like I’m someone who gives a fuck what happens to me.
Still Milan literally fell off the face of the planet. The cops looked for him for a while but they gave up. His mother cried for a bit but then moved out of town. Soon everyone just stopped talking about Milan Matthews. It was almost like everyone forgot he existed…everyone but me.
“Why’d you leave me Milan?”

He looks over at me. His eyes aren’t looking at my eyes though. For some strange reason his eyes are looking at my neck. Almost like a bug runs up his spine he jerks back to attention looking out of the window and away from me.
“So much has happened Santos,” he tells me, “You we were kids back then. We aren’t kids now. You turn 17 in two days don’t you.”

“Yeah. Why?”

“That’s old enough.”

“Old enough for what?”

“Take my hand.”

I look over at him. He’s acting so weird. The taxi pulls up to a strange building.

“Is this where you’ve been this whole time?”

“Take my hand,” he orders again. He’s not as soft as he once was. Milan has become stoic. His voice seems distant at though he has rehearsed what he’s saying instead of just speaking normal.

“Fine.”

The building was standing tall.
“Do you trust me?” he asks me.

“Of course.”

Milan smiles at that moment, “Here put this on.”

He hands me a blindfold at that moment. I am a little amused by it. I don’t hesitate though. I do what Milan says and I put the blindfold on. My heart his throbbing. I remember all the times he used to do things like this. He always would want to surprise me. I’m not shocked when he sweeps me up off my feet. However I am surprised when it feels like we are running. He’s carrying me as though I weigh nothing more than a feather.
I can feel air flapping up against me. It feels like we’re moving fast…like he put me on a motorcycle or something but no. The air is thrusting hard against me. Milan’s slim fingers are cradling me at every possible turn. It’s strange. It’s too strange.

“Milan…what’s going on…”

“Keep the blindfold on. I told you I’d take you to a better place. I’m going to keep my promise.”

A better place.
Impossible.

No where was better.

Underneath the blind fold I see a flashing white light. Suddenly there is a warmth. The cold October air just isn’t…so cold anymore. The air feels warm. It feels like an eternal spring. I feel Milan putting me down softly and he when he places me down I feel grass underneath me. The grass is soft and full. It tickles my hands.

“What is this?” I ask him.

“Take off your blindfold.”

I take follow his instructions and look around. That is when I see the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen again. We are in a grass field. Beautiful trees are all around us. The trees aren’t like normal trees. These trees are greener than I’d ever seen in my life. They look blossom with fruit. Their leaves are golden. The right a river flowed freely through the trees. It separated at four points and broke off in the distance. The water glistened with what looked like crystals. I gasp at the beautiful of it all. The sun isn’t in the sky but it isn’t dark either. It seems like twilight. The sky has a golden red tint to it.
“It’s not dark anymore,” I notice.
“The sky is always that color here…” he explains to me and crosses his arms, “The grass is always green. The water is always fresh. The air…”

He takes a deep breath and I mimick him. The air was the the best smelling air that I’d ever smelled before. There was no way in hell this was Harlem. There was no way in hell that we were even still in New York City. And it was the middle of the night. How the fuck was it twilight? I didn’t understand anything that was happening right now.

In the distance I see something that looks like a city. The city is…golden. It seems like it sparkles against the horizon. Towers are standing on one another as far as the eyes can see. There is a road that looks like it’s leading towards the city.

“This is…paradise.”

He laughs, “Something like it. It’s home.”

“Milan where the fuck are we?” I ask him.
He raises an tempting eyebrow, “You want me to tell you…or you want me to show you? We don’t have much time…”

He looks around nervously.
“Much time before when?”

“You’re not supposed to be here. I wanted to show you a place that you can come to…if you’d like. It’s a place that we can be together.”

So many thoughts go through my mind. I wonder if I had died on that bridge. I wonder if this is all just what happens after death. You think about about what you would like to happen most in the world. I would want Milan to come back into my life. I would want him to take me away to paradise where the grass is always green and the sky is golden. I always enjoyed the moment the sun rose and when it set. This sky was the most beautiful thing in the world. Milan was telling me it was always like this here. How was this not paradise?

“I need you to grab onto my back,” he tells me.

“What?”

“It’ll be faster than using your feet.”

“What’s wrong with my feet?”

I don’t have time to explain. He looks nervous around again and clearly seems to be worried about the amount of time that we’ve been here.
That’s when it happens. That’s when he grabs me and we’re running again. That is when I realize it. I realize just how fast Milan is moving. It’s inhuman. Yes. I’m sure of it now. A person can’t run 30 miles an hour like Milan is running.

When we stop we are in the town.
“Get the fuck off me.”

I’m panicking at that moment. I don’t know how else to react. What the fuck just happened? How the fuck was that possible. I’m in the town now. The town was far away and within a matter of minutes he’s able to run me all the way into the town. I look at him with a scared look.

“Wait listen. Ok. Let me explain.”

He reaches out to me. His thin fingers but I pull away.

Before long I realize that I’m in a crowd. There are people all around me. They are dressed in back. A lot of them have pale looking skin. They look like normal people only they aren’t. Something is…wrong with them. I can’t put my finger on it but I know these people aren’t normal people.

“Oh my god…did you hear the O class just has 6 fledglings in it this year.”

“Just 6? This isn’t good.”

I almost walk right into two women gossiping. The women stare at me strangely when I catch myself. They look at me with a strange look. The women are just two people gathering in the crowd. They all look like they are gathering to see something but I’m not exactly sure what it is they are trying to see.
One of the women looks at me and inhales deeply, “You smell…strange…”

She looks like she is about to lean over and smell me again. That’s when I see the weirdest thing happen. As the lady leans over to me fangs retract from her mouth like a fucking snake. The fangs extend from her canine teeth. The teeth are sharp, illustrustrious and white. They are dripping with saliva all of a sudden.

Just at that moment Milan hisses at them. When he opens his mouth I notice something as well. Fangs. There are definitely fucking fangs there. Milan has fucking fangs. The women give me a strange look but retract their fangs and walk off clearly not wanting any confrontation. I look at Milan at that moment. He grabs my hand and pulls me close to him.
“You’re a fucking…” I start off.
I can’t even finish the word.

“I’m a vampire.”

My heart is racing. It’s not fear though. It’s excitement. I didn’t know vampires really existed. I’m speechless. A few moments pass and Milan is looking at me as though wanting me to ask questions. I don’t even know where to start though. I’m just shocked and confused. There are so many things that I want to ask. Did this mean that Milan was dead? When did he become a vampire? How long had been a vampire? How did a place like this full of vampires exist?

Instead of asking any of those questions though my mind is immediately distracted. I’m not the only one. The crowd is distracted as well. I realize now that they are watching a parade. There is a parade to a building in the middle of the town. The best way that I can describe this town is something like a modern day Rome. There are cars in the streets but it still has a sense of history all around it. The buildings seem to be historical. They have that antique touch to them as though they were built in the Renaissance age. I am looking at the parade to a building that looks sort of like a church. It’s the only way for me to describe it. It’s not like some American church either. It’s one of those humongous, fancy looking European churches. It’s like Notredame or something. I look up and I can hardly even see the top of the building from where I’m standing. It towers over the city casting a big shadow over everything.

I watch as the streets are full of hundred of people and I realize these aren’t people. No. These are things…like Milan…like those ladies.

They are vampires.

“What are they looking at?” I ask.

“The city gathers around every year to see the new students. The first years are coming Vampire High.”

“You’re joking.”

The expression on Milan’s face tells me he is far from joking. Vampire high? Then I notice that he’s right. There are people walking towards the building. Right now all of the people walking towards the building are dressed in red. There has to be several dozen students dressed in red. They carry themselves relatively held high and strict. People are waving at the students dressed in red but the students seem very disciplined as though they were in the military. Under red hoods I see their faces. They are all teenagers…

After the red I notice a group of black hooded students parading up to the building. They are a little bigger than the red students. They are more muscular. They look slightly older as well. I can’t help but to stare like the rest of the crowd at everyone watching them. There is something so weird about this. There is something so strange about how excited the crowd is just for the fact that there are kids going to school. I guess the fact is these aren’t regular kids. They are vampire kids.

“I don’t get it what’s going on,” I tell him, “What’s with the excitement?”
Milan smiles, “There’s a lot you don’t know. You can know it. One day though. Look. Class O is coming up.”

“Class O?”

Milan points out into the crowd. There are a group of students walking up now behind the ones dressed in black. These students wear gold. They don’t have hoods on. I can see their faces.

“Holy fuck…they are beautiful.”

6 students. 3 boys and 3 girls. They look…flawless. I mean there isn’t a hair out of place. All of them look like they were made in a lab somewhere by a horny 12 year old with an obsessive imagination. I know now more than ever that this isn’t a joke. I know now more than ever that these things are not human. This class O is…gorgeous.

I realize how the crowd erupts as well when Class O walks up to the cathedral. There is something special about this Class O that sets them apart and it’s not just their overwhelming good looks. There is one boy in particular that stands out. He’s brown with big lips and gray eyes. His skin is smooth. For some reason he looks through the crowd and he looks right at me. That is when I realize his eyes aren’t gray. No his eyes are silver. The silver eyed boy just stares into my soul and he literally takes my breath away. His eyes are slanted. He doesn’t squint like Milan. No it’s different. They naturally squint. I can’t tell what race he is. He may be a mix of everything in existence, black, white, spanish, asian, native american. Hell he may even have some Panamanian in him. He looks…exotic. As our eyes connect for some reason it seems like everyone disappears. I realize the silver eyed boy looking directly at me and for some reason he breaks from the military like march to the cathedral. He’s wandering away and I hear someone call out to him. It’s only then that he snaps back and looks away from me.
He is…beautiful. The entire city seems to be shaking when they are walking up to the cathedral. I could take off all my clothes cut myself, drip blood all over the place and do jumping jacks in the middle of the street right now. No one would give a damn. Everyone is paying attention to Class O.
That everyone includes me.
“We should go now…now that everyone is distracted,” Milan tells me.

Looking at Class O…my heart is racing. I could just stare at the 6 of those students all day long. I didn’t know it was possible for beauty like that to really exist. My heart is racing just to even think about it.
I look at Milan, “I don’t want to leave.”

Milan smiles at me, “Hopefully you won’t have to be gone for long…”

I’m not sure what he means…but I’m very, very interested.

We get back to Raul’s house. I’m blindfolded. Milan doesn’t want me to know how to get to his secret city. He tells me it’s for my own safety and that it’s completely against the rules for ‘someone like me’ to know how to get to the city.

Raul gives us his room so we can talk but I can tell that he’s nervous about giving me time alone with Milan. He doesn’t trust Milan and after today I don’t know if I can trust Milan either. My world just changed in a matter of minutes. Everything that I thought was possible I realized wasn’t possible. Milan knows this and maybe that’s why throughout the night he’s looking at me as though attempting to explain this.

“Why did you show me that?” I ask Milan.
It’s the 12th time tonight that I asked Milan that question since we left that city. It’s back to being dark. We are back in Harlem. The air stinks again. The only thing I can think of is the fact that I want to go back. I want to go back to see the beautiful architecture, smell the clean air and see the beautiful Class O. I want to cheer for them in the crowd like everyone else. I want to see beauty and happiness in that strange place.

“Yes. Like Bible Eden,” he explains, “It’s closed off to humans. Remember when Eve bit the apple? Well…yeah luckily that rule didn’t apply to vampires as we aren’t considered the children of Adam. We were never kicked out of Eden so vampires are allowed to live there. I broke—I don’t know how many laws bringing you there without asking anyone. The only reason humans are allowed into Eden is during the feeding seasons.”

I don’t care about all of that.
“When can I go back?”

“Not so fast.”

“You can’t show me a place like that and just tell me I can’t go back,” I explain.
“I’d like to bring you back with me,” Milan explains, “We should wait though. We should wait until you turn at least 18…”

“Fuck no. That’s another year. I want to go now.”

“Santos…”

“Milan. I have nothing to go back to. I can’t wait one more hour. I can’t wait one more day. Seeing that city with you. That’s the first time I’ve seen it in a long time.”

“There are things you don’t know about vampires. There are ways that you should learn,” Milan explains, “I can teach you those things but it’s important that you stay close to me. Only select new vampires can enter Vampire High. Hopefully we can get you in…but if not…a lot of new vampires can’t handle it. They go…rogue…if they don’t have the proper training.”

I don’t know what he means by rogue but he looks a little scared by it. There is so much more he wants to tell me and I can tell he’s struggling to see what I can handle and what I can’t handle.
“Do it.”

“Santos…we should wait a little while longer. You should talk to Raul…”

“He’ll talk me out of it.”

Milan sighs a little, “Maybe he needs to talk you out of it. I feel like I’m being a little selfish right now. I don’t want you to hurt yourself. I know if you were like me…if you were immortal…it’d be a lot harder for you to hurt yourself. But there are things you don’t know about me. There are things I should tell you about why I left.”

“Later. Make me one.”

“Tonight?”

“Now.”

When you don’t have anything left to live for there are only two options. You die or you try to find another life to live. I obviously failed miserably in the dying department so maybe this other option was a sign. I had a connection to that place. I didn’t know what it was. I couldn’t understand it but I knew that I had to be there. I knew that my future was in Eden.

He grabs a cup off of Raul’s desk. I watch as Milan bites into his wrist enough to puncture it. A wound opens and he begins to squeeze his blood in the cup. My heart is racing. I’m not afraid. I don’t know why I’m not afraid. There is a man in the room right now and he’s dripping his blood into a cup. When the cup is halfway full Milan hands me the cup.

“To your new life. With me. Drink up.”

My world had turned upside down. Where I was upset now there was hope. Where I was depressed there was light. I was finally beginning to see my happily ever after as I drink and drift off into a sleep. I don’t realize I fall into a sleep until I wake up. My heart is racing and I can’t stop thinking about Milan.
This was going to be my happily ever after.

My angel had come to rescue me. He was going to take me to paradise and we’d live forever. We’d be happy forever.
Everything was working just the way I wanted it.

I wake up feeling like a new man.
I expected pain. There was none. I expected discomfort. There was none of that either. I expected weakness in my limbs but instead there was a strength. There was a strength unlike I never felt before. I look at my phone. It’s the same day…only half an hour later. Strange. I’m in Raul’s brother’s room. His little brother is no where to be found.

I get up at that moment and look in the little boy’s Diego inspired mirror. My skin is clear. No more acne. The bags underneath my eyes are gone. The dark spots are gone. My forehead looks smaller. My teeth are straight at that moment. I wonder where the fangs are. Do I have them yet? Am I a vampire?

I have to be…this person looking back at me is not Santos Rios—at least not the version I knew before.

I hear something. I hear something from the street. All of a sudden I’m hearing a lot of things that I didn’t hear before. There is a cat in front of the house playing with a can. There are two bums fighting down the street over drugs. Then I also hear something else. Footsteps. They are light footsteps. They stand out from underneath the house. And they just stand right outside my window. Waiting.
I walk to my window. There are people there.

3 hooded figures are standing outside of my window. They stare up at me. I see nothing but for some reason I can smell the bums fighting. I can smell the cat. These three people have no smell from the top of my window. Strange.

The welcome party?

I make my way towards Raul’s room hoping that Milan is still around. That is when I hear something strange. There is heavy breathing coming from Raul’s room. Raul’s in pain! I can tell. All of a sudden I’m running. I’m running as fast as I can down the hallway and that’s fast as fuck. I had no idea that this happened so fast. I had no idea that my body could become so different so quickly. It has only been fucking 30 minutes and for some reason I’m immediately different.

I punch at Raul’s door breaking the lock and open it.
That’s when my heart sinks.

Raul is in pain.

“Fuck me. Fuck me daddy…” Raul is saying.

Raul is in pain because Milan is standing behind him. Milan’s slim body is manhandling Raul. They aren’t using a condom. For some reason my new senses are able to tell that Milan is fucking Raul raw. He isn’t just fucking Raul either. Milan is making love to Raul. I can smell the sex all around them. I can see Raul holding close to Milan. I can see Milan grabbing onto Raul’s muscular chest.

That’s when I hear Raul whisper to Milan, “I love you.”

Milan kisses him so enthralled in passion that they don’t even see me, “I love you too.”

He’s squeezing his body in a way that Milan had never touched me. I had sex with Milan before but this was different. The way Milan was having sex with Raul had emotion in there. Raul was my best friend. He was the only person in the world I trusted.

Milan was supposed to be the person who came to save me and bring me to paradise. Isn’t it. Milan is fucking Raul. I am watching the love of my life…my angel who came to save me and bring me to paradise…fucking my best friend.